


o, fly on (death and all his friends)

by orphan_account



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1950s, Angst, Choi Yeonjun-Centric, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Historical Inaccuracy, Hurt/Comfort, Korean War, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, grim reaper beomgyu, grim reaper yeonjun, hueningkai will appear just so you wait, side taegyu, soldier soobin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:41:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23474842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "It's time, isn't it?""I'm afraid so."orChoi Yeonjun finds comfort in Choi Soobin's presence before his death.
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	o, fly on (death and all his friends)

It's black, a moonless night with only small-scale luminous points visible to the naked eye. The zoo is also making very little noise, one or two securities walking pass right and through every parts of the menagerie or mother chimpanzees crawling up to trees while calling their children to go to bed, and Choi Yeonjun can't help but to smile at them.

With the black jaguar sitting upright beside him, Yeonjun clears his throat before getting himself distracted to the other animals. "Right this way, Daecheol."

The male feline sits still, "I don't know, sir."

Yeonjun expected this to come. From all of the encounters he's had with other creatures, refusal is conforming to a standard. The crisp night occurs at the same time as his shoe accidentally taps on the ground and as Daecheol's heartbeat skips. Yeonjun faces towards the feline. "Take your time, then."

He continues, "I'll wait for you at the back of the zoo."

Yeonjun saunters away without looking back even for a split second, and passes through the aquarium section. It's dark blue, not as gloomy as the night but he finds comfort at the sharks floating still, and he quickly looks up when the sting ray flies along, he really does find comfort in the ocean. The warm and shallow turqoise with calming waves, and the friendly creatures inside it, something undeniably magnificent.

But what's more magnificent is the vast forest and jungles around the world. He's now at the back of the zoo, somewhere that is prohibited for visitors to come through. Yeonjun thought that it's a place where the zookeepers train and clean their elephants; since he does sense a pungent smell of fecal matter here-and-there. His feet moves around the grass more, ignoring the reeking smell and he smiles, just as damp moss surrounds him like an ozone. The forest is right behind the zoo, he can see it so very clearly. It's thick, slightly eery as they're just as dark as the night sky and Daecheol's fur but Yeonjun is content. Earth has the most wonderful forests, he admits. He wishes he could just protect all of them, but how can he do that when his business is to take happiness away from people around him?

"Sir," something calls. "Is it okay if I have my last wish?"

Yeonjun turns around quick at how the wind slips through leaves, the black jaguar walks on his toes and he halts right beside Yeonjun. The human-like creature chuckles. "I'm no God but go ahead. I can't promise anything if what you wish is something magical, though."

Daecheol roars, saying something around him being free is already magical. Yeonjun makes an exception to his request, and he lets the black jaguar run like the wind through the forest for the last time.

The night is indeed dark, a clear terrestrial, cold; and as much as Yeonjun thought it's a good thing to put an end to Daecheol's life, he feels rather empty when the jaguar runs back into him, Death, like an old friend. But that's okay. Daecheol is free now.

* * *

_"The war is coming."_

_Yeonjun's skull tremble in the greatest surprise, eyes travelling up to the man-like decomposing creature covered in thick black robes. He laughs in disbelief, taps on the wooden desk with his own bony fingers and he just can't believe the fact that he has another big job to do._

_"You're kidding." Yeonjun signals._

_"No," says Beomgyu. "You missed the meeting, this is why you don't understand."_

_"I'm so fucking sick of wars, Beomgyu. Can't these dumb humans just, have a truce?"_

_The decayed looking creature quietly makes a thorough change in the form of a human boy in his teen years, the robes are no longer present in anyone's eyes and he takes the small notebook on the table. "Quit yourself from whining, hyung. I got stuff to do."_

_"Bet your stuff right now is killing off those who don't wanna get drafted, huh?"_

_There's a slight amount of poisonous substance in Yeonjun's words, and no one can describe how the younger one almost flinched in his position. The room turns into a relatively low temperature, no one moves an inch until Beomgyu indistinctly says something. "That's none of your business."_

_Beomgyu swiftly exits the place, leaving a smell of weird tension inside Yeonjun and he slouches in his seat. His empty eye sockets run cold, skeletal fingers a bit confused on what to do next and yet his mind wanders around why Beomgyu has been using that certain human form for a few weeks._

* * *

Yeonjun heaves out a shaky breath just as he slides the notebook back inside his pocket. His human blue hair blows, and he crouches down to the grassy surface of the earth and he touches the tips of the gaenari flowers. Yellow stops living, slowly turning into an unimpressive color of egg yolk and he bites his lower lip, a tear almost escapes just from seeing how the flower slouched so easily.

Everything he touches just, die down like that.

But in a mere fifteen minutes, he needs to wait, ignore everything. His next task is to take care of a young female jindo dog named Jihyun near one of Busan's small neighborhoods, just across the Nakdong river. Yeonjun grunts from this huge amount of physical movements, and he scoffs at how chilly the wind is as he waits himself from being seen.

Thirteen minutes coming in, he heard a scream.

His mind wanders around, describing to himself on whose scream this is. A piercing cry, which sounds more like from someone young, a kid, perhaps? Yeonjun doesn't know, it's not on his notebook and he's sure that if another demise goes on for the next few moments, there must be someone from his kind waiting for the right time instead of Yeonjun himself. But easy does it, his heart palpitates and it moves so fast which made him sit up and look around the trees.

A bark goes in, and another bark, and another scream.

It's almost 6:07 in the evening, and that forced the human muscles on his feet to move, from what seems like a small walk turned into a run, he runs, runs towards the source of the barks and screams. A sound of stream burbles as it travels along its bed, bubbling over rocks and branches. The river is definitely mocking him for being unprepared; for not knowing what to face next. And yet Yeonjun's pants are louder, he halts his own breathing just as he finds a boy getting pinned down by a gray wolf beyond the trees.

"Help!"

This.. isn't what he was expecting.

A white jindo female dog. Not a gray wolf. Definitely not a Korean gray wolf.

"Wait," he breathes to himself. "Wait.."

Yeonjun looks around the trees, expecting a decomposing skull-like creature with black robes and a scythe on their hands or just a normal humanoid person waiting between the trees, but no one's there.

Another growl. "Please- please, help!"

Yeonjun breaks out of his trance and he can sense a small sound of time ticking, killing every dignity he has. He swallows quick, looking back at the boy and he swears he can see him stare back at Yeonjun, pleading for genuine help for the sake of his own life.

"Ahh! Please-" a cry is out this time, and it doesn't matter how this boy can see right through him since now Yeonjun acts on impulse when he sees it bite to somewhere on the stranger's body; he runs towards the wolf, pulls the back of the aggressive wolf's neck on him and it thrashes so much. With the huge amount of energy coming from the wolf, it keeps on thrashing and even pushes Yeonjun to the ground, wanting to sink its teeth on him and struggling away from Death at the same time. Yeonjun doesn't even do anything, he just holds the wolf's face away from his own, but what can it do? The moment you touch his fingertips, you know you're no longer there.

It trashes on Death's embrace, the gray wolf finally gives up to it, weakening in an instant as the last whine leaves out of the poor animal's mouth.

Yeonjun pushes the dead wolf away from his body, and he holds himself from thinking; freezing at the thoughts running around his mind. His breath labors, time feels like going on a low speed and he sits up, quickly looking around the trees only to find Beomgyu in his human form; bewildered. Just standing between the trees.

"Beomg-"

The younger shoots him a confused glare, pointing his index finger to the boy who just got attacked. As much as Yeonjun wants to run to Beomgyu to explain what just happened, he knows he can't just leave everything be. Yeonjun pants, frantically nods to himself and to Beomgyu, and he crawls towards the young boy with millions of questions bombarding his mind.

Patches of blood are visible, they're right on the boy's arm and Yeonjun grimaces, unaware of the other's groans of pain. "Are you.. are you hurt?"

His heart drops to the ground when the boy answers, "I don't know."

The boy can see him, and he can hear him.

Choi Yeonjun is baffled to the core of his soul. He's not imagining things, is he? He's keen on remembering things perfectly, to an extent of being able to bring to his own mind an awareness of any tiny details he has ever been told. Those who can see him are the people and any other creature that he's tasked to take care of. Who is this boy, exactly? Where is the dog, Jihyun? Why didn't he see Beomgyu standing there? Perhaps it was Beomgyu's task for handling the gray wolf, he should've known it and not strayed away from the rules.

"I need you-" Yeonjun gulps. "I need you to lay down for a bit."

The boy can only nod and does as he was told to, the small trickles of crimson wine gush out like jelly from the arm and Yeonjun almost panics. He takes his own jacket off, and wraps it around the boy's bleeding arm.

"Put pressure on it, don't let go, okay? Stay awake, hey- stay awake."

Yeonjun looks up, a whine escapes from his lips as the unfamiliar human-like panicky feeling soars around his chest, it feels like the world is about to break down and it's even more like it when he can't see Beomgyu anywhere around the trees.

"You should go," the boy mutters. "Jihyun's coming and she would've thought it was you."

"Jihyun.. your dog?"

Yeonjun wants to fly out of earth just as he catches a glimpse of white fur running from beyond the trees towards the boy's position; and she whines, as if not knowing Yeonjun's sitting there right beside her.

* * *

_Yeonjun is shaking, his human heart rate increases more by the second and his jaw clenches, the dormroom's door is left ajar and he slams it open, resulting in the only person inside to flinch in his position. The room briskly gets mildly unpleasant just when Yeonjun pulls Beomgyu's collar in a manner that is jarring to the senses, roughly pushes him to the wall and Beomgyu's human form almost glitches and he tries his best not to transform in this moment._

_"Why the fuck did you do that?!"_

_"Hyung, let go of me."_

_Yeonjun's eyes well with tears and he screams, "You left me alone!"_

_"I.. I got confused too. Please- just, let go of me for a second, I can explain-"_

_Yeonjun lets go of the other one rather briefly to the point of rudeness, his breath starts to lose momentum while backing away and he whines, "Fuck, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that-"_

_"Hyung, take deep breaths. Turn into your real self, now," he says. "You're exhausted."_

_The older one in the room backs away more, the skin on his whole body melts, the robes appear engulfing everything about him excluding his skeletal face. The tears are still there, cascading his own empty eye sockets and Beomgyu stays still, lips thinned._

_"Better?"_

_He nods._

_"Don't talk," Beomgyu scolds, and he laughs inwardly to lighten up the lukewarm mood. "I know it's hard to mumble in your own 'death' voice."_

_Yeonjun stays silent, and he sits down to the nearest bed with the heavy weight still travelling aimlessly from his chest to his mind, he lets out a signal, "Go ahead."_

_And that day ends with Beomgyu explaining that all Death and their friends have been experiencing the same thing too. False names and details written on your own notebook, false time, and even you could collect wrong souls, some even merely guides their spirits to the wrong realm; somewhere they don't belong. The war is indeed coming, thousands and even hundreds of thousands of deaths are about to come and that must've made a glitch on everyone; but this has never happened before. Yeonjun remembers exactly how World War II was even more fatal, him and his friends were scrambling here and there to handle them all but a glitch never happened._

_"So it's just," Yeonjun turns back into his human form. "It's just like that?"_

Ending the conversation with a nod from Beomgyu, now Yeonjun knows that The War is coming, and he should be prepared for what's about to come. And he doesn't know if he's ready for it.

**Author's Note:**

> i'll post chapter 2 soon!!  
> also i wrote this back in early april and i was literally SHOOKT to the core when i reread this and noticed the jaguar scene with yeonjun😭 did i just predict a song from an album that will be released a month after??? okay yes puma IS a jaguar and the fact that the this fic's first scene's setting was in a zoo.. "the puma that escaped the zoo" SHIVERSDJDJDN i don't know how to cope with this information


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